Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Chicken Pot Pie - Worthy of company!

Oh, how I wish you were all here... we just ate some of the most heavenly chicken pot pie. I made up the recipe, and want to share it with you. (3/4 of the pie is left. So if you hurry right over, you might get a piece while it's still warm and fresh.)

When my husband and I were first married, money was very tight and one of our staples was store-bought chicken pot pie. In those days, one little single serving pie cost 15 cents. When it went up to 30 cents, we quit buying them. As I said, money was a bit scarce. But we've always loved chicken pot pie and we were talking about it yesterday. Unless I was desperate, I wouldn't eat one of those now, but our conversation made me want some. Here it is after we served ourselves:

A closer look at the filling:

Here you can see the edge of the crust:

Ok, so lets see if I can remember!

HOMEMADE CHICKEN POT PIE

Filling:

2 cups diced cooked chicken meat1 carrot, peeled and diced1 medium white potato, peeled and cut into small cubes1 small can of mushrooms, drained and sauteed briefly in 1 Tablespoon of butter1 pint of home canned corn, boiled for 7 minutes and then drainedMost of a batch of homemade cream of chicken soup (recipe below)

Place those three ingredients in the bowl of your food processor and pulse until nicely mixed together, then start adding, a little at a time:

Cold whole milk

Add a little milk, pulse, add a little more, pulse until the ball of dough comes together, then remove from processor and divide in two portions. Roll out on a floured surface and put the first crust into your pie pan. Reserve the other portion until you have the filling ready.

HOMEMADE CREAM OF CHICKEN SOUP (enough for the pie with a little left over.)

1/4 butter1/2 cup white flour (divided)1 teaspoon sea saltfreshly ground pepper to taste1/8 teaspoon ground poultry seasoning1 quart chicken stock. (2 days ago I made homemade chicken and noodles, and I boiled a whole chicken for that. I used the dark meat in the soup and then saved the remainder of the meat for other dishes in the freezer. The way I made this stock was after I picked the meat from the bones, I broke the bones in pieces, put all of them and the fat and gristle into a pan, added a smallish splash of raw apple cider vinegar and barely covered them with water and simmered for 2 hours, strained the broth out at kept it in the refrigerator until I needed it today.)1/2 cup light cream, half & half, or whole milk

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium/low heat. Add 1/4 cup of the flour and stir until it is all absorbed. Then, a little at a time, add the chicken stock, stirring in thoroughly so it won't get lumpy.

When all the chicken stock is in, add the salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Then, put about 1/4 cup of warm water in a small bowl and stir the remaining 1/4 cup of flour into it. Then as the soup is simmering, gradually add the flour/water mixture until it seems pretty thick to you. Stir constantly and don't let it scorch. When it is quite thick, add, stirring, 1/2 cup of light cream, and heat a little bit more.

There, now your cream soup is done!

To assemble the pie, as I said, put the first crust into the pie pan. Then mix together the filling ingredients, leaving out about 1 cup of the cream soup, as that will probably be too much.

Pour the mixture into the bottom crust and even it out. Then, roll out the second crust, using plenty of flour so it won't stick...

One thing I do when rolling out crust, is... I have a long flat spatula, and once in a while I carefully run that UNDER the crust to help keep it from sticking.

Place the second crust on top of the filling and cut a few vents so the steam can escape. Tuck the top crust around and under the bottom crust and using your fingers, flute the edge.

Bake at 350F for at least an hour and maybe another 10 - 15 minutes. The crust needs to be browning and then you'll know it's done.

Cool for 1/2 hour before serving.

Serve with a fresh tossed salad, a lot of it, and eat that first or else you are going to have a hard time not consuming this whole pie at one sitting.

Enjoy!

I don't know why blogger does these things to me. The bold faced type and the italic script seem to be stuck on. Sigh.... ;)

7 comments:

That really does sound good. I love that everything is homemade, even your stock. You inspire me. Just curious if you cooked like this when you had small children. I find it difficult to make time for very healthful eating right now, but maybe it just needs to become more habitual before it becomes easy.

When I was first married, I didn't cook everything from scratch, but I started, and was learning to cook in the process. By the time I had 3 little kids, I know I was making everything from scratch then, and gardening and canning out of necessity. We determined if we were going to have a family, I would stay home and raise them, and I'm so glad we did. It was tough, but quite worth it, and they don't care about the hand-me-downs and things. They were happy. That being said, I have learned as I went and my cooking has branched out over time. I didn't start with what I know now, but have always been concerned with nutrition... obsessed, my kids might say. :) Healthy eating does not have to be complex. I would concentrate on simply leaving OUT the things that are not healthy. Use good fats, first, like real butter, kettle-rendered lard, extra-virgin olive oil, good coconut oil. Do however much your time and budget allow. Legumes are cheap. Homemade whole grains breads are WAY less expensive than the store bought. Soda-pop is OUT. Small servings of meats... it doesn't have to cost a lot. See if you can get hooked up with a food co-op near you. I buy a lot of my supplies at wholesale + 20% from a friend who does a small co-op. If you have any questions for me, about more specific things, just email me at ilovekefir@hotmail.com . Cooking good healthy food is critical to our health, just like you wouldn't put kerosene in your car's gas tank, we need the proper fuel to, or else in time, it will catch up with us. Good luck and thank you for the nice comment!

I am so glad you posted this. I too have been hungry for pot pie. When I was first married we usually had between 10 and 15 dollars a week for food and gas. We ate big buckets of peanut butter, balogna, bread and beans.